Some existing power management systems are able to label at least some of the electrical devices that are included in the power management system. This labeling is often done using an interface that is part of the controller which serves in part to operate the power management system. The data associated with labeling at least some of electrical devices within such power management systems is stored exclusively in the controller.
One of the drawbacks with these types of power management systems is that if the controller malfunctions, then the data associated with labeling the electric devices may be lost or damaged. This loss of data within the controller necessitates the manual reentry of labeling data into the controller.
Other existing power managements are sometimes able to enter data into the controller via a remote connection. One of the drawbacks with existing power management systems that enter electric device labeling data into the controller remotely is that the remote connection can be unsecure. Therefore, installers typically need to apply their own relatively expensive (and often customized) security wrappers to the power management systems.
Another drawback with existing power management systems that enter electric device labeling data into the controller remotely is that the labeling data is still only stored on the controller. Therefore, users of the power management systems are still required to reenter electric device labeling data when the electric device labeling data is lost on the controller.
The controllers in many existing power management systems can also be difficult to access remotely because such power management systems are typically located on private networks and cannot be accessed by public networks (e.g., the Internet) without some form of network administration. This need for further network administration is undesirable because they often require additional time, money and highly qualified personnel in order to set up the networking infrastructure.